Thursday, April 17, 2008
Warnings for Online Health Record Systems
The New York Times points us to an article, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, that raises some warnings about taking personal health records online, and entrusting them to third parties not bound by HIPAA regulations:
...Microsoft and Google, the authors note, are not bound by the privacy restrictions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or Hipaa, the main law that regulates personal data handling and patient privacy. Hipaa, enacted in 1996, did not anticipate Web-based health records systems like the ones Microsoft and Google now offer.The authors say that consumer control of personal data under the new, unregulated Web systems could open the door to all kinds of marketing and false advertising from parties eager for valuable patient information.
Despite their warnings, Dr. Mandl and Dr. Kohane are enthusiastic about the potential benefits of Web-based personal health records, including a patient population of better-informed, more personally responsible health consumers.
“In very short order, a few large companies could hold larger patient databases than any clinical research center anywhere,” Dr. Mandl said in an interview.
But the authors see a need for safeguards, suggesting a mixture of federal regulation — perhaps extending Hipaa to online patient record hosts — contract relationships, certification standards and consumer education programs.
More from the NYT...
Full article in The New England Journal of Medicine: Tectonic Shifts in the Health Information Economy
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Tuesday, April 8, 2008
The Cult of The Amateur
Medgadget, though a blog, has always had the policy of providing professionally edited information to our readers. In important matters such as medicine, we believe expertise is absolutely essential, and we are often shocked by websites that attempt to revert long established practices that, more often than not, are not subject to debate among physicians and industry researchers. Yet claims to the safety of contact with mercury abound, the dangers of vaccinations are over-hyped, and pregnant women are regularly promoted the idea of choosing to give "natural" birth with a midwife in the comfort of their home. The result? Babies born at home tend to have more problems afterward, and contagious preventable diseases are on the rise.
Much of this "information" stems from the nature of the Internet itself. When one's expertise in a subject often counts for naught, people, who for whatever personal reason tend to provide their uneducated version of truth to an unsuspecting public, become experts.
Dutch filmmaker IJsbrand van Veelen has been extremely critical of this trend and the dangers that it implies, and has produced a film with a particular focus on Wikipedia and the nature of its content:
More at TechCrunch...
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Is Autism Really on The Rise?
A group of investigators, headed by Professor Dorothy Bishop, a Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, has published a paper in the journal Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology that essentially says that the rise in autism is likely related to changes in diagnosis that were made in the 1980's, and not to the increase in incidence of the disease. As the press statement issued by the Wellcome Trust says, "many children diagnosed with severe language disorders in the 1980s and 1990s would today be diagnosed as having autism."
Professor Dorothy Bishop, a Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, led a study that revisited 38 adults, aged between 15-31, who had been diagnosed with having developmental language disorders as children rather than being autistic. Professor Bishop and colleagues looked at whether they now met current diagnostic criteria for autistic spectrum disorders, either through reports of their childhood behaviour or on the basis of their current behaviour. The results are published this month in the journal ‘Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology’.Developmental language disorders, which include specific language impairment, are diagnosed when a child has unusual difficulty in his or her grasp of the spoken language, despite normal development in other areas. This may range from a child who has very limited ability to produce or understand spoken sentences, to one who does speak in long and complex utterances but nevertheless has problem communicating effectively because of problems in conveying a point or grasping what others mean.
Autistic spectrum disorders, which include autism and Asperger’s syndrome, are developmental disorders affecting how a person communicates with and relates to other people and how they make sense of the world around them.
Participants in the study were drawn from a pool of children who had participated in a series of studies of developmental language disorder conducted during the period 1986 to 2003 and about whose conditions detailed information was known. All attended special schools or classes for children with language impairments, and would have been diagnosed by educational psychologists, paediatricians or speech therapists as having developmental language disorders; none had previously been diagnosed as autistic. However, when reassessed by Professor Bishop and colleagues using current criteria, around a quarter were identified as having autistic spectrum disorder.
In recent years, the criteria for diagnosing developmental language disorders and autism have changed. This has coincided with a marked rise in the rates of diagnosis of autism. According to the Special Needs and Autism Project, the figure until the 1990s was widely accepted as being about 5 people per 10 000; even using the narrowest definition of autism, this rose to almost 40 in 10 000 by 2006.
There are two main hypotheses to explain this rise: the 'autism epidemic' hypothesis and the 'diagnostic substitution' hypothesis. While the former says that the rise is genuine, the latter maintains that the true prevalence of the disorder is constant but that changes in diagnostic criteria mean that more children are being diagnosed as autistic. The latter theory is supported by a UK study (see point 3 below) using the General Practice Research Database, which found that the rise in autism was mirrored by a decline in frequency of language disorders and now by Professor Bishop's study.
"Our study shows pretty direct evidence to support the theory that changes in diagnosis may contribute towards the rise in autism," says Professor Bishop. "These were children that people were saying were not autistic in the 1980s, but when we talk to their parents now about what they were like as children, it's clear that they would be classified as autistic now.
The question is whether big media will pick up on this study or not, as it is strangely not covering it so far.
Study supports theory that rise in autism is related to changes in diagnosis...
Abstract: Autism and diagnostic substitution: evidence from a study of adults with a history of developmental language disorder (Dorothy V M Bishop DPhil, Andrew J O Whitehouse PhD, Helen J Watt BA, Elizabeth A Line BSc (2008)
Autism and diagnostic substitution: evidence from a study of adults with a history of developmental language disorder
doi:10.1111/j.1469-8749.2008.02057.x )
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Monday, March 31, 2008
DHS Hospital Experience Survey
The Department of Health and Human Services has released the latest statistics of a patient survey conducted across US hospitals asking people about things like how well nurses communicate to whether their room was quiet at night. All this is easy to search and compare across hospitals in a given area.
Service page: Hospital Compare
Flashback: U.S. Hospital Comparison Website Launched
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Thursday, March 27, 2008
At Home Paternity Test Available Over The Counter
Identigene of Salt Lake City is now selling their $150 mail-in DNA paternity tests at RiteAid stores across the wild nation, with the exception of stores in New York state.
"Over-the-counter sales offers a completely new marketing channel for DNA testing. It makes the process more convenient and affordable while ensuring reliability and confidentiality," said Doug Fogg, COO of Identigene. "We learned that people are extremely receptive to the idea of purchasing a DNA paternity test kit while shopping at one of the nation's leading drug store chains." Outside New York state, Rite Aid has 4,363 stores in 30 states and the District of Columbia. Fogg said he anticipates the Identigene DNA Paternity Test Collection Kits will be sold in New York state at a later date.In the past, to obtain a DNA paternity test often required involvement of doctors or lawyers, weeks of waiting for results and a cost of multiple hundreds of dollars. "Because of my personal circumstances, the day I left the hospital after my son was born I turned in case papers for a paternity test," said Natalie Maynes of Vancouver, Wash. "Two months went by with no word, so I called. They told me with their waiting list, test results could be up to six months away. That night on the news, I learned I could buy an Identigene DNA Paternity Test Collection Kit at Rite Aid. Taking samples was easy, and it was nice to be able to do it ourselves. Five days later, we had our results."
With an Identigene DNA Paternity Test Collection Kit, participants of the test collect a DNA sample by rubbing a swab inside their mouth. The samples, along with consent forms and a lab fee are sent in an enclosed postage-paid return envelope to Identigene for processing. Results are available from Identigene within three to five business days of receipt. Customers can choose to receive results by mail, email, or online through a secured Web service. All information remains strictly confidential.
Suggested retail price for an Identigene DNA Paternity Test Collection Kit is $29.99, and the laboratory processing fee is $119.
Press release: Identigene Begins Nationwide Over-the-Counter Retail Sales of DNA Paternity Test Kits in Rite Aid Drug Stores...
Product page: IDENTIGENE DNA Paternity Test
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Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Home Bi-Polar Test Kits Cause Mixed Emotions
All too often we come across some new diagnostic methodology that researchers claim could be commercialized in just a few years. Typically these claims are the reason researchers stick to research and leave the commercialization to others (it's never as simple as they claim). However, out of San Diego we have the story of Dr. John Kelsoe, who's applying his genetic research on the genetic predictors of bipolar disorder to sell an at-home test kit for $399.
Not surprisingly, such a quick run to the marked has brought some dissenting opinions...
"People are always rushing to the market on the basis of one or two studies," said Dr. Muin Khoury, director of the National Office of Public Health Genomics at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "We have very little evidence that telling people their genetic information is going to make any difference."
Kelsoe acknowledges the weaknesses of his product, but sees it more as a means to start a discussion between a patient and their doctor.
But [Kelsoe] said his test is a vital starting point toward moving away from the notoriously tricky practice of diagnosing bipolar disorder based purely on a person's behavior."The goal of this is to try and help doctors make an accurate diagnosis more quickly so the patient can be treated appropriately," Kelsoe said. "Anything is going to help, even if it just helps a little bit."
More from the LA Times and (of course) the product page from Psynomics, Kelsoe's company.
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Friday, March 14, 2008
Implant Hacking Possible, Not Probable... yet
This is an update to our earlier post about the vulnerabilities of AICDs and pacemakers to hack attacks. Here's what we have learned now. It is very common for implantable devices to be programmed and maintained using wireless communication. As any paranoid blogger using a wi-fi hotspot knows, wireless communication is often very insecure and easily monitored unless proper precautions are taken.
Researchers are reporting that they were able to acquire confidential patient records from a Medtronic ICD, as well as deliver fatal shocks and shut the device down.
Manufacturers have been lax on implementing security methods in the devices because of battery drain concerns. The other points of this study suggest methods that could theoretically be used to make the devices more secure, although none of them have been tested in the field.
It is important to note that the researchers required $30,000 of lab equipment and a distance of 2 cm from the device in order to carry out the hack, so this is probably not an imminent threat to the thousands of people with these devices.
While the threat might not be imminent, Dick Cheney will probably lock himself in his man-sized safe just to be sure.
Read the NYTimes.com article here...
Read more about the study at secure-medicine.org...
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Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Possibility of Hacking Implanted Defibrillators Demonstrated
A study by researchers at Harvard Medical School, University of Massachusetts, and University of Washington, has shown the possibility of hackers interfering with implanted defibrillators, including downloading sensitive information and reprogramming the device to the detriment of the patient.
From the Wall Street Journal:
The study, to be presented at a California computer-security conference in May, suggests manufacturers should consider how to stop unauthorized people from tampering with implanted medical devices that receive instructions via radio waves, a growing category that also includes spinal-cord simulators and drug-delivery pumps."This report demonstrates that you can obtain private information without authorization. You can reprogram the device without authorization," said William Maisel, a Harvard Medical School cardiologist and a co-author. But he cautioned that "our report is a theoretical risk, not an actual risk" and said there was no reason for anybody to consider removing a defibrillator.
There are no known cases of malicious tampering with somebody else's defibrillator, Dr. Maisel said. The authors withheld certain details of their experiment to prevent malicious people from repeating the procedure.
More from the WSJ...
Flashbacks: 'Hackers may target pacemaker technology' ; When Hackers Attack Hospital; 'Medical records are wide open to computer hackers'
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Wednesday, February 20, 2008
SCOTUS Limits Suits Over Medical Devices
The Supreme Court of the United States ruled this morning on the case of Riegel v. Medtronic, Inc. The issue before the court was whether patients and their representatives can sue medical device manufacturers in state courts over devices that have been federally approved, or as it was presented in the court, "whether Section 360k(a) of the Medical Device Amendment to the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act preempts State law claims seeking damages for injuries caused by a device that received pre-market approval."
In an 8-1 decision SCOTUS sided with Medtronic. We can pretend that we understand the reasoning behind the decision, but we won't. Below is the Supreme Court's official case decision, that you can read or print or email.
From the AP: Court Limits Suits Over Medical Devices ...
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Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Motivational Deficiency Disorder (MDD) Takes on Pharma Marketing
A British organization called Consumers International is making fun of TV drug ads, and so hopes to convince the public to not be swayed by direct to consumer (DTC) pharmaceutical marketing. Here is a spoof drug ad the organization has produced:
For those that cannot read between the frames, the Wall Street Journal Health Blog explains:
The spoof includes classic elements of a Big Pharma TV ad: a warning that one in five people suffers from MDD, an interview with a doctor and rapid-fire warnings about the drug’s side effects (which in Strivor’s case include sexual hyperactivity, flatulence, spontaneous vomiting and lethargy).The spoof directs viewers to Marketing Overdose, a site Consumers International set up to dissect the drug industry’s marketing tactics. The site lambastes consumer advertising, the wining and dining of doctors and the financing of patient groups. It also includes a spoof training video for sales reps trying to peddle Strivor, and pokes fun at a made-up patient group called Unmotivated Anonymous.
More at WSJ Health Blog...
Project page: Marketing Overdose...
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Monday, February 4, 2008
Online Doctor Visits Here to Stay
A number of major insurance companies are beginning to reimburse patients for online visits with physicians, which often makes more sense than travel, especially for the elderly and when direct observation and tests are not necessary.
In recent weeks, Aetna Inc., the nation's largest insurer, and Cigna Corp. have agreed to reimburse doctors for online visits. Other large insurers are expected to follow, experts say.These new online services, which typically cost the same as a regular office visit, are aimed primarily at those who already have a doctor.
The virtual visits are considered best for follow-up consultations and treatment for minor ailments such as colds and sore throats.
But some specialists, including cardiologists and gynecologists, also see these e-mail tete-a-tetes as ideal for periodic checkups that don't require in-person visits.
More at the LA Times...
(hat tip: Kevin, MD)
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Friday, February 1, 2008
In Defense of RFID
BusinessWeek is running a series of articles that take a look at the various issues surrounding the controversy of implantable microchips. This week, Scott R. Silverman, CEO of VeriChip out of Delray Beach, FL, is defending the technology that led his company to receive the first FDA approval for implantable RFID:
During the FDA approval process we provided 34 studies to the FDA demonstrating the safety of implantable microchips. There have been numerous studies in mice, rats, woodchucks, rabbits, guinea pigs, pigs, and dogs that investigated the microchip and potential adverse effects of inserting it into subcutaneous tissue. None of these studies showed any tumors or other significant problems. It is clear the use of microchips in humans and pets is a safe and a dependable means of identification that has been used in millions of animals for over 15 years and in humans for the past several years. Except for a few vocal naysayers, this product is overwhelmingly embraced by medical professionals and high-risk patients.There has also been some confusion regarding the VeriMed microchip's capabilities. The VeriMed microchip is a passive device (it has no power source) that is activated only when read by our scanner. The microchip stores only an identification number and cannot track a person's whereabouts because it does not have Global Positioning System capability. Some privacy advocates have voiced concerns regarding our microchip but often we find that once people are educated on what the device is: a passive identification tool to identify high-risk patients and their medical records; and what the device isn't—a GPS tracking device —their concerns are mollified.
More at BusinessWeek...
Related: California Senate Passes Bill Outlawing RFID Skimming
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Tuesday, January 29, 2008
The Neuromarketers
In the world of advertising there has always been the dilemma of how to measure the effectiveness of a particular ad. A reader points us to a BusinessWeek article on how a few ad agencies are starting to use functional MRI machines to monitor, in real time, the brain's response to commercials.
Neuromarketing uses state-of-the-art technologies such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), magneto-encephalography, and more conventional electroencephalograms (EEGs) to observe which areas of the brain "light up" when test subjects view, hear, or even smell products or promos. The activity of regions such as the nucleus accumbens, insula, and mesial prefrontal cortex give researchers insight into how consumers respond to specific stimuli."Emotions cannot necessarily be accurately described," says Gemma Calvert, head of the Multisensory Research Group at Britain's University of Bath and director of neuromarketing consultancy Neurosense in Oxford, England. Using brain scans, she says, "We can see the discrepancy between what you say and what your brain says, and reduce the margin of error."
That's what attracted Viacom Brand Solutions to experiment with neuromarketing. The London-based Viacom (VIA) subsidiary, which sells ads on the entertainment giant's channels including MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon, Paramount Comedy, and E! Channel in Great Britain and Ireland, engaged Neurosense to measure the response of 18- to 30-year-old viewers to ads interspersed into episodes of cartoon comedy South Park. The two dozen subjects each spent an hour inside an fMRI scanner watching four programs while their brain activity was measured.
The Importance of PlacementThe result? Advertisements for popular "alcopop" vodka beverage WKD from Torquay, England-based Beverage Brands elicited vigorous brain responses, while ads for the Red Cross and reliable old Tetley tea produced much less reaction. The takeaway, says Calvert, is that ads "congruent" with their environment outperform those that are "incongruent."
Looks like they're discovering something that has been long known.
More at BusinessWeek...
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Monday, January 28, 2008
Stem Cell Century: Law and Policy for a Breakthrough Technology
I (Dr O) just finished reading a powerful new book, Stem Cell Century: Law and Policy for a Breakthrough Technology by Russell Korobkin and Stephen R. Munzer, professors at UCLA School of Law. People in the medical field often assume that science marches forward, while they tend to forget (and even sometimes disregard) the societal concerns and objections to new technologies and scientific ideas. Never before in the history of modern medicine has a new discipline generated so much controversy and opposition, as well as hope and promise, as the newly emerging field of stem cell biology. Consequently, the law and policy making will play as much role for the future of this field as the science itself, including its bench and clinical research.
Messrs. Korobkin and Munzer subdivided the book into 10 easy to read chapters. The biology principles are explained clearly at the beginning of the book. What follows then is a thoughtful analysis of the issues--legal, societal, ethical, etc.--and how to present them to the public and defend them in the courts. The authors discuss a wide range of issues in stem cell biology--stem cells, cloning, IVF, embryos creation, and more--and the surrounding legal arguments, anything from constitutional concerns, to patent law, to rights of patients to receive treatments, even if these therapies are controversial and not proven. The legal and policy issues, precedents, and a wide range of controversies are laid out in the book in a plain manner, so anyone outside of the legal profession would understand.
I thoroughly enjoyed the book. The authors not only formulated the game plan on how to pursue and to defend the future of stem cell biology, but they also presented an illuminating account of the beauty of thought that underlies the legal profession itself.
Must read: Stem Cell Century: Law and Policy for a Breakthrough Technology by Russell Korobkin and Stephen R. Munzer; Yale University Press (November 28, 2007)
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Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Rubber Surgical Gloves: Invented and Disinvented at Hopkins
William Stewart Halsted, Johns Hopkins Hospital's first head surgeon, invented rubber surgical gloves, and now the very same institution has instituted a moratorium on them.
It was at Hopkins that immunologists Robert Hamilton, Ph.D., and Franklin Adkinson, M.D., conducted early key research related to the problems of natural rubber latex as an allergen. Furthermore, Brown points out, the nurses and other frontline hospital workers have been instrumental in implementing the latex-safe policy and educating the staff. Studies show that roughly 6 percent of the general population and up to 15 percent of health care works are allergic to latex, with the higher rate among medical personnel due to longer periods of contact with natural rubber. In addition to surgical gloves, latex is used in numerous medical devices such as tourniquets, blood pressure cuffs and stethoscope tubes. The anaphylactic reactions, similar to those caused by foods such as peanuts or by bee sting allergies, can include a drop in blood pressure, an irregular heartbeat, swelling in the hands and feet and constriction of the airways. In extreme cases, anaphylactic shock, which can occur minutes after the exposure, can lead to death.Allergic reactions generally result from exposure to natural proteins, in this case proteins specific to natural rubber latex, a product from rubber trees.
Currently available replacement gloves are made of one of three synthetic products -- neoprene, polyisoprene or vinyl, none of which contain natural plant proteins.
Johns Hopkins is now using sterile neoprene and polyisoprene gloves in the operating room because they have a more sensitive feel.
Press release: RUBBER GLOVES: "BORN" - AND NOW BANISHED - AT JOHNS HOPKINS
Podcast from Johns Hopkins on the transition to latex-free...
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Monday, January 14, 2008
Legless Athlete Too Fast for Olympics
Today we learn that Oscar Pistorius, the star South African sprinter with prosthetic legs, was disqualified from competing in this year's Olympics. The International Association of Athletics Federations tested his artificial legs in the laboratory and concluded that they're 25% more efficient than the blood and flesh variety, and therefore would give Pistorius an unfair advantage.
More at Wired...
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Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Dealing With Charlatans
A bit of old school investigative reporting by the Seattle Times has led the FDA, and even Congress, to look into companies selling two fake medical devices that apparently promise to cure everything from AIDS to colon cancer. Because the FDA allows the sale of these things as "stress-relief tools," the companies are not banned outright from marketing their products without a scrupulous regulatory process. The current investigations by the FDA and U.S. House Energy and Commerce subcommittee, is looking into promises made by companies marketing the devices in question.
From The Seattle Times:
The report detailed victims of a growing and largely unregulated field called "energy medicine" - alternative therapies based on the belief that the body has energy fields that can be manipulated to improve health.One device, the EPFX, is manufactured by William Nelson, a federal fugitive in Budapest, Hungary. The desktop machine purports to diagnose and cure diseases from cancer to AIDS. Nelson rakes in millions of dollars monthly by selling the machines and other products through his company, Eclosion.
In the past week, dozens of EPFX distributors and operators stripped their Web sites of any illegal claims, such as that it can diagnose or cure disease, according to a review by reporters.
The largest distributor of the EPFX, The Quantum Alliance of Calgary, Alberta, removed from its Web site a November newsletter that outlined how to use the machine for blood and stem-cell analysis, facelifts and lip enlargement.
The FDA recently revoked Nelson's registration, which will prevent the EPFX devices from entering the country. Further action is expected involving an estimated 10,000 devices already shipped into the U.S, FDA officials said.
Legally, the device can be sold as a stress-relief tool, according to the FDA.
Congress is investigating the EPFX as well as the PAP-IMI, a 260-pound electromagnetic pulsing machine, manufactured in Greece, that has been linked to injuries and death. The machine, invented by Panos Pappas, is banned for use in the U.S. but The Times found treatments offered in clinics in at least five states.
More at The Seattle Times...
The Times' Original Report: Miracle Machines: The 21st-century snake oil ...
House Committee on Energy and Commerce press release: Dingell, Stupak Investigating Institutional Review Boards, Questionable Medical Devices
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Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Anaesthesiologists Bracing Themselves
Awake, a new Hollywood movie featuring a devilishly cunning anesthesiologist, is causing another example of hysteria before the public even has a chance to react to it. Trust your correspondent, an anesthesiologist, on this one: awareness under anesthesia is a multifactorial, complex phenomenon. The American Society of Anesthesiologists has an excellent website that explains anesthesia awareness, and it also keeps the patients registry. So check out these sites, and here's some more about the movie and the clinical problem from the New York Times:
Called anesthesia awareness, it occurs when patients wake up during surgery because they are underanesthetized. In real life, these periods are generally brief. But the patient can indeed feel pain, ranging from minor to unendurable."Those are the two ends of the scale, and there's everything in between," said Dr. Peter S. Sebel, a professor of anesthesiology at Emory University and a leading researcher on awareness. "We don't have a good feel for how many episodes are distressing and how many are not."
Such nuances may be lost on viewers of "Awake," which opened Nov. 30 - a date for which anesthesiologists spent months bracing themselves.
The American Society of Anesthesiologists sent e-mail messages to its 40,000 members urging them to be prepared for a possible onslaught of negative press and questions from patients who have seen the film. On Nov. 2, the society's president, Dr. Jeffrey Apfelbaum of the University of Chicago, advised members to "remain calm regarding the movie."
Particularly troubling to physicians is the film's marketing line, which states that "Awake" will "do to surgery what 'Jaws' did to swimming in the ocean."
More at the New York Times...
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Friday, December 7, 2007
A Doctor vs Cleveland Clinic
Today's Wal Street Journal has an article about a dispute between Cleveland Clinic and one of its former department chairs, Dr. Jay Yadav, who was fired for alleged conflict of interest involving "financial stakes in two companies whose experimental products were tested on clinic patients." (We have reported about Dr. Yadav in an earlier post about CardioMems' implantable device for the monitoring of blood pressure inside aortic aneurysms. He is a chief executive of Cardiomems, an Atlanta company.)
In a lawsuit, filed in an Ohio court against Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Yadav claims that financial conflicts of interest are pervasive among Cleveland Clinic physicians, citing hospital's chief executive Dr. Delos "Toby" Cosgrove, an inventor of Cosgrove-Edwards ring, and Dr. Isador Lieberman, an orthopedic surgeon with ties to Kyphon Inc.
WSJ: Cleveland Clinic Dispute Intensifies ...
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» A Strange New Kind of Gift Card (November 8, 2007)
» Synthetic Genomics and Its Policy Implications (October 31, 2007)
» Drug Ad Memorability Rated (October 25, 2007)
» The Math of Donor Organ Matching (September 5, 2007)
» MySpace for Space Cadets (August 16, 2007)
» Designer Nite-Lite (August 16, 2007)
» Freeman Dyson: Science Needs Heretics (August 13, 2007)
» Patents on Surgical Techniques the New "Bread and Butter of Patent-Getting" (July 17, 2007)
» The Bladder Buddy (July 16, 2007)
» Boston Scientific vs Alfred Mann (July 13, 2007)
» Medical Imaging Companies Fight Medicare Cuts to Medical Imaging Spending (June 26, 2007)
» Is War Good for Medicine? (June 22, 2007)
» A Doctor vs The New York Times (May 15, 2007)
» World's First 'Holter' of Fetus's Heartbeat: Let's Raise Some Questons (May 10, 2007)
» Risks and Benefits of Nanomedicine (May 9, 2007)
» The Tinfoil Hats are Back and the Moonbats Sweep Low on the Horizon (April 27, 2007)
» New Report Looks at Nanotechnology's Future (April 25, 2007)
» Nanoparticles Synthesized for Skin Applications: Pros and Cons (April 24, 2007)
» A Great Anti-Smoking Ad (April 19, 2007)
» A Diabetic Asks: Why Don't Pumps Look Like iPods? (April 10, 2007)
» FDA Opens Post-Approval Device Studies Site (April 9, 2007)
» CDC Gets On Board with OnStar (March 22, 2007)
» Would You Trust Your Advance Directives to a Computer? (March 13, 2007)
» Cell Phones in Hospitals Still Fascinate Researchers (March 9, 2007)
» BMJ Urges Others, Fails to "Lead by Example" on Climate Change (February 20, 2007)
» Carbon Footprint, or How to Spot Other People's Garbage (February 16, 2007)
» Enviga in Hot Waters (February 12, 2007)
» Body Hacking: You Are the Platform (January 11, 2007)
» GPS is Under Foot (January 10, 2007)
» Nanny State Cares About Your Underwear (December 15, 2006)
» Drug-coated Stent Safety to Be Examined by FDA (December 4, 2006)
» Zion vs. New York Hospital (December 1, 2006)
» Tied in Knots over Umbilical Cord Blood Bank (November 20, 2006)
» They're Back! (November 20, 2006)
» Trauma Center: Second Opinion (Wii) Operating Gameplay (November 17, 2006)
» Where Science and Law Meet - Nanotechnology and Intellectual Property Issues (October 26, 2006)
» Counterfeit Glucose Test Strips Hit Market (October 16, 2006)